


Haunted by the Ghost of You

by SoftServeTY



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Curse Breaking, Curses, Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, Ghost Sex, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, this isn’t scary I swear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:20:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22220194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftServeTY/pseuds/SoftServeTY
Summary: Johnny always expected to have a pretty average life, so when his life abruptly ends too soon, he's more than willing to get it back. But, there's a price for life, and in Johnny's case if he can prove his worth, then he can live again.Now, he's stuck in the living world as a ghost and only being told three words from someone can break him from his curse;"I love you."
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 58
Kudos: 166





	1. Lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know I started started another wip instead of finishing the ones I already have, don't @ me.

Johnny was four years old when he and his parents moved into their forever home, a cozy two bedroom apartment smack in the middle of Seoul. The view was breathtaking, and he has fond memories of laying his head in his mother’s lap, looking out the window from the couch while she ran her fingers through his hair and hummed soft melodies to him. They were never of any particular song, but he would always get them stuck in his head nonetheless.

Johnny was five years old when he started to learn how to play the piano. His father bought him a keyboard for Christmas, which was then promoted to piano classes after school and on the weekends. Most kids his age typically hated it, they didn’t like having to practice their playing skills on their time off when they would much rather be hanging out with their friends. But, Johnny loved it, he loved the proud look on his parents' faces when he came home to play them a short snippet of what he was learning in class.

Johnny’s parents loved him, that much he was sure of, but he was always certain when he played the piano for them. They always doted over him and gave him as much affection and attention as possible since it had been hard for them to have him in the first place. They never really went into details, just that Johnny was the best son in the world, and that they had to go through a lot of convincing for the angels to gift them such a perfect son, that’s why it was so hard to have him.

Johnny was six years old when he became his grades favorite student. All of his classmates loved him along with the teachers, he was well behaved but still knew how to cut loose and have some fun at recess. Other kids would try to fight over who got to play with him or who sat with him at lunch, and Johnny would be lying if he said that he didn’t like the attention. His mother always told him that he deserved it, to be cherished by everyone around him. And he was, he certainly was.

Johnny was seven years old when he died. The fever came out of nowhere, and before he knew it, he was bed ridden. He missed his friends, he missed his piano, but most of all he missed his parents’ smiling faces. He began to see doctors’ faces more than his own friends and he hated them, with their smell of bleach, their masked faces, and their gloved hands. He wanted to cry whenever he saw them pull out another needle, but his mom would hush him gently and tell him that they were just giving him fluids to stay hydrated.

Despite his parents’ pleading and the doctors’ best efforts, he didn’t get to leave the hospital. He never got to play kickball with his friends, play the piano for his parents, or listen to his mother’s singing ever again.

He is watching all of this unfold in front of him, a short timeline of his life replaying in front of him while he sits in a barren lobby with nobody else with him. Johnny cocks his head in confusion at the film of memories that seems to be floating on its own, but then it stops abruptly and disappears.

Johnny blinks a few times, then extends his hand where the film had once been playing only to feel empty air. The room felt empty before, but now it feels impossibly more so. He crosses his ankles and rocks his legs back and forth that don’t quite touch the ground from the sofa he’s sitting on. He fidgets with the hem of his hospital gown anxiously, humming a tune his mother had sung to calm his nerves.

He’s alone for a few more minutes, but then a lady comes through the door across the room. She’s pretty, dressed head to toe in sleek business attire that he would see some of his classmates’ mothers pick them up from school in, but aside from that she looks normal. She approaches him slowly, the clacking of her heels emphasized on the tile flooring.

“May I sit here?” she motions towards the vacant seat beside Johnny.

Her eyes are warm and soft, not like the sad and pitying eyes of the doctors that he had grown used to seeing. He nods his head hesitantly, still in awe and a little confused but he feels like he can trust her.

The cushion of the sofa dips beside him and she crosses one knee over the other. “Do you know who I am, Johnny?”

Johnny shakes his head, he’s not really sure what’s going on right now at all or where he is, let alone this stranger who just walked in. “How do you know who I am?” he mumbles, feeling too small in comparison to her and this room, his failing voice only backing up that feeling.

A brief puff of air escapes her nose and she chuckles faintly. “I know a lot about you.”

He pouts slightly in thought, glancing down to his legs that are still kicking rhythmically. “Are you my guardian angel?”

She laughs a little fuller this time, placing a dainty hand over her mouth. When she composes herself she brings her hand back down and rests it in her lap. “Sort of, but I’m not quite as lovely as she is.”

Johnny’s pout grows stronger and he looks up from his knees to search around the room. “Where are my parents?”

The grin on the woman’s face falters. “Do you want to see them?”

Johnny nods his head with more vigor than he has this entire conversation.

“Do you know where you are Johnny?” Her tone turns a tad serious, a subtle shift that makes the hairs on the nape of Johnny’s neck stand on end. This lady is asking him a lot of questions and he just wants his parents there to guide him.

“No.” Johnny eventually answers, playing with the hem of his gown again.

“You’re in limbo. That’s sort of the grown up word for being between the living world and the afterlife.” She pauses to let the information sink in, at least as much as a seven year old can process the thought of being dead.

“I’m here because you have a very important choice to make, and not a lot of people get to have this choice so you’re a very lucky little boy.” She smiles warmly again, scooting closer to him in an attempt to make him feel comfortable with her. “Now, I need you to listen carefully and think really hard about your decision, okay?”

She rests one of her hands over top of both of Johnny’s small ones that are insistent on plucking out the thin string at the bottom of his gown that he has already partly unthreaded. Johnny knows and sees that her hand is touching his, but there’s no warmth on her skin, nor is it cold. It’s just there, existing.

“You have two options, you can either move on to your next life, with a new family and new friends, as a different person. Or, you can return to your previous life, but you will be invisible to everyone. You won’t be invisible forever though—at least I hope not—all you need to do is have someone who doesn’t already tell you that they love you, then you’ll be back to normal.”

“So it’s kind of like a curse?” Johnny offers, his eyes big with wonder as he finally looks up at the woman.

The lady quirks a skeptical eyebrow towards Johnny. “I like fiction stories and shows with magic.” he supplies once he realizes the woman’s mild confusion. “Have you ever heard of Harry Potter?”

“I haven’t, you’ll have to tell me more about it someday.” She gives his hand a short reassuring squeeze, pulling herself back together before she can get lost in his big, curious eyes and talk about the joys of childhood for hours.

“You’ll age like everyone else, you won’t continue to be a child, and you can speak, but nobody around you will hear you. And you’re not allowed to talk about your...‘curse’... to anyone, you won’t be physically able to.”

Johnny’s head drops back to his lap, where he notices that his legs have stopped nervously rocking. He muses over the options with his lips pursed in thought.

“Can you make the magic happen again? Can you show me those videos of my parents?”

The lady looks momentarily taken aback, but then a gentle smile forms on her lips. Without saying anything, the tapes of Johnny’s past begin playing in front of him again.

He sees the time when his parents first let him hang ornaments on their Christmas tree, the ornaments were far too cluttered together but his parents only told him that it was perfect. He sees a moment when his father played ‘airplane’ with him, hoisting Johnny up into the air with his stomach on his father’s feet. He sees the time when he was helping his mother bake a birthday cake for his father and she told him to ‘mix two whole eggs into the batter’ and Johnny did just that. It was an unsettling experience for all of them when they bit down into eggshell scattered throughout the cake later that day.

“I want to be with my family again.” Johnny finally says after watching the tapes for some time and smiling fondly to himself.

“Are you sure? Even though your parents won’t be able to see you?” the lady tilts her head in light confusion, a little stunned with Johnny’s abrupt decision.

“That’s okay, it’ll be alright as long as I can be with them.” Johnny radiates a determined strength behind his smile that seems too mature for his age.

The woman is still a little taken aback, but she smiles and sighs in defeat at the hands of this seven year old boy.

“Okay, that’s your final choice? This is a big decision and you can’t change your mind afterwards, so do you still want to go back to this lifetime?”

“Mhm” Johnny gives one hard nod to really emphasize his choice and he hears the lady chuckle a soft laugh.

“Alright well, you’ll be home shortly, Johnny.” the woman hums before standing up.

She spares Johnny one more glance before walking across the room to leave. Johnny doesn’t know what to make of her last expression, but it looked like a peculiar mix of sympathy and and a wish for good luck.

He’s watching her intently, and as soon as the door clicks to a close, everything else in the room around him changes. He’s back in his own room, sitting on the end of his bed. He looks around in awe, everything is exactly the same as when he left.

That was all a dream, it had to be. Maybe from some weird medicine that the doctor gave him. He hears his parents shuffling around in the other room and he doesn’t waste a moment to spring up from the bed and go running out into the living room.

“Mom! Dad!” he cheers, overrun with joy and bursting at the seams with happiness.

But, his parents don’t pay him any mind, they keep going about their business which seems to be...packing up boxes. Johnny glances over the boxes scattered around the room, one says ‘bedroom’ another says ‘bathroom’ another reads ‘clothes’ and Johnny stands there being completely lost.

“Dad?” Johnny says again when his father walks past him towards the kitchen, but his father doesn’t even so much as glance his way.

He looks at his mother’s calendar on the kitchen refrigerator. It’s much later than the last day he remembers in the hospital—several months later actually. He stares at the calendar and steps closer to it as if his eyesight has gone down, yeah that must be what the problem is.

“Oh! Be careful, let me help you with that.” his mother has mild concern in her voice and Johnny turns around to see his father carrying a seemingly heavy looking box labeled ‘dishes’.

Right when she comes over to help him, a knock at the door echoes throughout the apartment. She sighs with faint annoyance and gives his father a look to put the box down until they can deal with it later. They walk over to the door but Johnny is still petrified in the kitchen, desperately trying to make sense of the situation.

He hears the voice of a woman that he doesn’t know and then footsteps that come closer and closer into the house.

“Sorry to show up unannounced, but I thought that you might like some homemade sugar cookies, I made them this morning. I know that moving can be stressful, I mean even we have a lot of stuff still to pack up.” the woman’s voice is soft spoken and sweet.

“Oh! Why thank you so much!” Johnny’s mother coos.

She comes into the kitchen to put the cookies away and Johnny tries to move to get out of her way but it’s too late. He closes his eyes and waits for some kind of collision, but then he hears his mother speaking from behind him. She already passed him, she...walked right through him.

Johnny stands there motionless, eyes wide in fear as reality begins to dawn on him. The lady in the office wasn’t a dream, he really died, and he really is like a ghost now. He wants to cry, he wants to run into his mother’s arms and have her rub his back soothingly and whisper calming words into the top of his head. But, he also knows that he agreed to this and he should be a big, brave boy because his parents wouldn’t want him to be scared or sad.

He is pulled away from his own thoughts worrying about himself when he sees a small presence walk by out of the corner of his eye. It’s another little boy, probably around his age, and this boy is walking straight towards  _ his  _ bedroom. Normally Johnny would be mad because he doesn’t know this kid so he has no right to go waltzing into his room, but something about the boy is interesting to Johnny, he just can’t put his finger on it.

He follows him into his room and watches him while the boy walks around. Johnny makes a mental note that if he finds his comic book stash and starts going through it, he’ll pull some cool paranormal tricks to teach him a lesson not to go snooping. He can probably do cool ghost things, right?

The boy just looks around the room, not touching anything, and Johnny is borderline offended that this uninvited stranger in  _ his _ room seems bored. But then something catches the boy’s attention—Johnny’s keyboard. He steps over to it and Johnny watches with intrigue as the boy lifts a hand to ghost along the keys but doesn’t press down.

Johnny looks at his beloved keyboard with longing and reaches a hand out to touch it too, but of course it doesn’t work. He drags his hand across each key, in hopes to get a note out of one of them, but his hand just goes straight through it.

He eventually gets to the same section of keys that the other boy is pretending to play but not actually pressing down hard enough to emit a sound. Johnny rests his hand over top of the boy’s in a weak hope to persuade him into playing, because Johnny just really wants to hear a note. His fingers are splayed out over the other’s perfectly and he presses and presses until one of the fingers finally gives.

The air had been quiet before save for the indistinct chattering of the adults from the other room, but then a note rings out and Johnny and the boy both jump in surprise. Johnny looks at his hand, wondering if he really just did that, and his suspicions are all the more backed up when he sees the other boy staring at his hand with bewilderment.

“Jaehyun!” the mysterious woman calls and then the boy is quick on his feet to come running out of the room and Johnny follows him.

“Sorry that door was supposed to be shut, but we must have forgotten to close it. That room isn’t up for viewing yet, we haven’t been able to pack it up yet.” Johnny’s mother informs apologetically while she shuts the door to Johnny’s bedroom.

“No no, don’t apologize, I should have kept a better eye on Jaehyun, and he should know better than to go snooping around in other people’s belongings.” she gives the boy a look of warning before beckoning him to come over. He waddles over to her and takes her hand in his small one. It makes Johnny’s heart ache with the want to have his parents dote over him.

“That’s a boy’s room isn’t it? Where is he?” Jaehyun strains his neck to get a complete sweep of everything that he can possibly see in his position, looking for the presence of another boy.

The room falls silent and Johnny can feel the unspoken tension in the air. Thankfully the boy’s mother seems to read the room and is quick to rebound.

“I think that we’ve bothered you two enough.” she jokes as she leans down and sweeps Jaehyun into her arms. “Please enjoy the cookies, and don’t be shy to ask for more, I made plenty.”

His parents bid them goodbye until they see each other again some other time and the woman heads for their front door. Johnny watches as she walks away with Jaehyun clinging to her with his arms wrapped around her neck and his chin resting over her shoulder. 

He’s probably imagining it, but he swears that Jaehyun is looking right at him as his mother carries him away. But, Johnny doesn’t get to find out because then they leave and the door closes behind them.

*

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-” Jaehyun grumbles as he fumbles with his keys, trying to find the one for his apartment.

He should have known better than to stay the night at a one night stand’s house, he wasn’t too tired to leave after they were done, but he told himself that he would just set his alarm to go off early and then he would head back to his place in the morning. Well it  _ was _ a decent plan, that is until Jaehyun forgot to plug in his phone, so it died in the middle of the night and he did not in fact wake up to his alarm. Instead he woke up to the stranger’s morning wood pressing against his ass—which usually he wouldn’t be upset about and he might even risk missing his morning lecture to sate his own pleasures—but to his dissatisfaction the sex last night wasn’t even that good.

So, now here he is, looking like a mad man muttering to himself and wearing his dirty clothes from yesterday as he tries to get his piece of shit door open. Just when he finds the right key, the door next to his opens and it startles him enough to drop his keys right on the floor. “Fucking great...” he hisses to himself before his neighbor can hear him.

“Ah, good morning Jaehyun! On your way out for the day?” his neighbor—an elderly woman who has way too much free time and keeps herself busy by shoving her nose into what everyone else around her is doing—sing songs from her doorway.

“Good morning.” Jaehyun puts up his best attempt at a fake smile—and he’s gotten pretty good at it from pretending that he finds the obscene pickup lines from guys trying to get into his pants funny—especially when he shows his dimples. “And no, I’m just now getting in.” he informs, trying to bite back the irritation in his tone as he bends down to collect his keys because he really doesn’t have the time to chit-chat right now. He needs to take a shower to get the gross film of sex off of his skin and then book it to campus.

He thinks that he has done a decent job at making his neighbor believe that he’s an upstanding citizen, and in his defense he is mostly, but just how she likes to butt into everyone’s lives, Jaehyun likes to sleep around. So, to each their own.

“Oh? But I heard you playing your piano last night. You always play so beautifully by the way.” she hums, reaching out an assuring hand to rub at Jaehyun’s arm like a proud grandmother.

Jaehyun pauses briefly from jingling his keys again as he tries one after the other to see which one will fit in the lock, he really needs to find a way to distinguish all of his keys from each other. “I must have accidentally left my music playing before I left, sorry if it bothered you.” Jaehyun huffs a breath of relief when he finally hears the click of his lock. “It was lovely talking with you Mrs Lee, have a nice day.” he blurts and rushes into his apartment before she can delay him any further.

Jaehyun hurries into the bathroom to start the shower so that the water will heat up as soon as possible, then he steps into his bedroom to throw his clothes into the laundry hamper. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his record player and he notes that he definitely didn’t leave it running because there’s not even a record in it.

Huh...weird.

His neighbor must have been wrong, she was probably mistaking hearing him play for another night. That had to be the reason why.

*

“This guy can’t play the piano for shit.” Johnny complains bitterly to only the air that will listen to him, because the old woman and Jaehyun certainly won’t.

He leans against the wall of the hallway that the three of them are currently congregated in, judging Jaehyun for collecting another tick to add to his bang list that’s already way too long. He snickers at the way he can tell Jaehyun is annoyed with the woman, a twitch of one of his eyebrows that most people wouldn’t pick up on, but observing someone for 17 years will do that to you.

Now he’s 24 years old—at least he thinks he is technically in human years—and his self assigned roommate who doesn’t know that he has a roommate is your 22 year old run-of the-mill university student. The whole being a ghost but still aging like a normal human thing kinda sucks, but Johnny has plenty of other things to be more petty about. Like having his keyboard playing be mistaken for Jaehyun’s, or having to remove himself from the scene when Jaehyun brings home yet another guy that will be gone in the morning.

Despite having his qualms with Jaehyun, he really can’t say only bad things about him. After all, why would he stay around him when he can literally go wherever he wants whenever he wants if he didn’t like him at least a little? On the contrary, he actually has grown quite fond of the little shit over their years together. 

It all started when they were younger, the first day Johnny met him really. Ever since the day he made Jaehyun play that note on his keyboard, he’s been strangely drawn to the other. His new found interest for the other even compelled him to come back to Jaehyun after his parents moved houses. Johnny stayed with them for a while, but the mourning over him became too much to bear. It was then that Johnny realized that the sorrow of parents grieving over their deceased child just might be the most heart wrenching feeling in the world.

His feelings towards Jaehyun began as fascination, drawn to the way the younger colored outside the lines of his coloring book. Then as fondness as they both entered their teens with the way Jaehyun’s ears would turn bright red when he was called on to read aloud in class. And now as unreasonable jealousy and desire when Jaehyun is held in the arms of another man through the night.

He’s never really sought to see his curse through, he gave up that hope long ago. He knows that it’s practically impossible to not have someone run away screaming in terror whenever he so much as tries to communicate—he may or may not have tried to type on a few students' laptops at Jaehyun’s school—so there’s no way he’ll be able to get close enough to anyone for them to tell him that they love him.

That’s why he knows that he shouldn’t feel entitled to Jaehyun, especially when the other doesn’t even know Johnny exists, but it still hurts him every time Jaehyun brings another guy home who cares about nothing more than his ass. He supposes he gets why Jaehyun is is like this though, he’s seen him go through what he thinks was love and then heartbreak.

It was right when Jaehyun entered university, he met a guy in one of his classes and they hit it off pretty quickly. Johnny didn’t even mind him, he was a decent guy, at least up until he cheated on Jaehyun with another person. Jaehyun was distraught for months and his grades plummeted. Johnny couldn’t sit idly by while Jaehyun’s friends consoled him and got him back on his feet, no, Johnny took matters into his own hands. He may have given Jaehyun’s ex second degree burns by spilling his own coffee on his lap during their lecture together. If his dick still functions correctly after that, it certainly doesn’t look the same anymore.

Being able to interact with objects and people is a feat that Johnny has learned he can in fact do, but the process involves a lot of focus and energy. He’s never really had to use his powers for long periods of time, but he imagines that it would take a lot out of him.

After Jaehyun freshens up and puts on clean clothes he runs out the door to go to school. Johnny waits for Jaehyun to come back after class—because as much as he likes being with Jaehyun and keeping him safe silently, he does  _ not _ want to sit through any more of his lectures. The night grows later and later and Johnny begins to wonder where Jaehyun is, but he figures he’s probably out with his friends.

He’s watching TV—caught up in an episode of Ghost Hunters—when he hears Jaehyun fumbling with the handle to his front door. Johnny quickly turns the TV off and hopes that Jaehyun didn’t hear it, but that worry soon dissipates when he hears Jaehyun laughing loudly in the distance.

Johnny walks through the wall into the living room and he sees Jaehyun come stumbling drunk into the room. He’s not alone though, there’s another man hot on his trail who latches his arms around Jaehyun before he can get too far and pulls him into a sloppy kiss. Johnny rolls his eyes and lets out a deep sigh as the two inebriated men make their way to Jaehyun’s bedroom.

He’s used to this routine by now, he’ll leave for a few hours and then come back once they’re hopefully done. But, something about Jaehyun being drunk doesn’t sit right with him. He  _ really  _ doesn’t want to watch Jaehyun get rammed into the mattress yet again, but he can’t shake the unnerving feeling of leaving him to the devices of a stranger while he’s not in his right mind.

Johnny chokes down a curse—which he doesn’t know why he still finds that he needs to be quiet sometimes because nobody has never and will never be able to hear him—and drags his feet to the bedroom.

The display is already gross with Jaehyun on his hands and knees and his ass up in the air, and Johnny opts to maybe just listen instead of watch because he should still be able to tell if the guy is doing something Jaehyun doesn’t like even if he doesn’t watch them. Also because to Johnny’s dismay, Jaehyun is extremely and utterly captivating when he’s naked and turned on, and Johnny is tired of getting horny over a boy who he doesn’t stand a chance with.

He closes his eyes and lets his head rest against the wall as he sits on the floor. The wet sounds of messy kissing, low moans, and the occasional slap of skin fill the room and Johnny’s poor ears.

“Hurry up, get inside me.” Jaehyun pants, and Johnny is really beginning to regret his decision to stay.

He hears the drawer to Jaehyun’s bedside table open up and Johnny already knows that he’s rummaging for his stash of lube and condoms. Johnny wonders, is it really too late to back out of this?

“Oh, I don’t need that.” the stranger chuckles breathlessly, and Johnny can’t help the way his eyes snap open.

He couldn’t mean...oh he is. The stranger takes the condom from between Jaehyun’s fingers and tosses it eerily close to Johnny. That doesn’t sit right with Johnny at all, and apparently it doesn’t with Jaehyun either, though with alcohol in his system he’s a lot less angry and more giggly than Johnny.

“What? C’mon use it.” Jaehyun slurs, reaching for another from the drawer.

A heavy ball of anger grounds itself in Johnny’s chest when the other guy shuts the drawer and grabs Jaehyun’s wrist to pin it above his head.

“I’m sure you know that it doesn’t feel nearly as good with a condom on. I just want to make you feel good, baby.” the man whispers in Jaehyun’s ear.

“Noooo.” Jaehyun whines as he tries to wriggle free from the other guy’s hold, but his limbs aren’t quite working the way he wants them to.

Johnny is glad that Jaehyun knows even when he’s plastered to have safe sex—it’s a weird thing to be proud of but hey he’ll take it—because he doesn’t trust if this fucker is clean as far as he can throw him.

“It’ll be fine, I’ll make you feel amazing.” Johnny assumes that the guy is trying to sound alluring, but he sounds creepier and creepier by the second.

He pushes Jaehyun’s face into the mattress when he gets tired of his complaining and lines himself up to him. That’s the final straw for Johnny, and he doesn’t think twice before grabbing a handful of this asshole’s hair and flinging him backwards.

The guy goes flying with a loud thump when he hits the floor. He seems momentarily shocked, but then he scrambles to his feet and flings his head around, desperately searching for the presence of another person. Johnny had hoped that would be enough to make him leave, but he’s just standing there looking scared shitless with his dick out, so Johnny socks him right in the jaw. The man stumbles backwards, and stares directly where Johnny is with his pupils blown wide in fear of the unknown. He quickly turns on his heel and bolts out of the room, picking his pants up on the way. A pity, Johnny would have preferred to have him run down the street stark naked.

Johnny turns around to see Jaehyun rising up on his wobbly arms. Jaehyun looks over his shoulder for the other guy and then huffs a laugh when he doesn’t see him.

“Piece of shit...” he mumbles as he rolls over onto his back.

Johnny is expecting Jaehyun to get up and clean himself off—at least to get the unused lube off of his ass—but he’s proven to be wrong when he sees Jaehyun’s chest begin to rise and fall with deep breaths. Johnny lets out an exasperated sigh and takes it upon himself to go turn off the lights that Jaehyun turned on during his lively trip to his bedroom because he’s putting his nonexistent money on the fact that Jaehyun doesn’t want to pay that electricity bill. He locks the front door as well before going into Jaehyun’s room one last time to check on him.

He’s hardly covered so Johnny moves the blanket to at least come up to his chest. He’s never touched Jaehyun, that is aside from the time when they were children in his room playing the keyboard. He’s been tempted plenty of times, but he’s afraid if he does then Jaehyun will fear him just like everyone else. This is one of those times, the desire to kiss Jaehyun’s plump lips washes over him like a warm shower.

Johnny kneels on the floor beside Jaehyun’s bed and observes his sleeping face closer even though he knows that he’s only making it harder on himself to resist. He knows that Jaehyun is knocked out, pretty deep in sleep and won’t be waking up any time soon, and even if he somehow does then he probably won’t remember anything from tonight anyway. It’s that knowledge that leads Johnny to press his lips to Jaehyun’s.

They’re warm and soft and feel much more heavenly than they should, just like Johnny expected. It’s a tender but lingering kiss, and Johnny knows that he shouldn’t have done that as soon as he pulls away because all he wants now is more. But, he swallows that want and stands up to leave.

He doesn’t need to sleep, so he often goes out at night to entertain himself rather than dwell on heavy thoughts at home. He’s about to leave, but then Jaehyun stirs and it catches his attention. Jaehyun is seemingly still asleep, but he rolls on his side and touches his fingers to his lips. Johnny doesn’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but that doesn’t stop the adoration in his heart from growing stronger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaddaya think? 👀 Please let me know!  
> I love feedback!
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/SoftServeTY)   
>  [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/SoftServeTY)


	2. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Hi...I'm Johnny**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for clarification, this chapter is the start of dialogue through written messages since Johnny can't communicate with people through normal speech. So to differentiate the lines that Johnny is 'saying', his lines are in bold rather than quotations since he's not technically speaking them.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Jaehyun doesn’t bring anyone home for weeks after his last incident, neither does he stay out late anymore. Johnny can only blame it on the clutches of school, wringing their long fingers around Jaehyun’s neck and shoving his head into textbooks.

It puts Johnny’s thoughts at ease when Jaehyun is home and he knows that he is safe, not at some stranger's house. But, he can’t say that he loves it either, because now with Jaehyun’s increased presence, it makes the longing in Johnny’s heart ache all the more. Especially at times like this, when Jaehyun’s head bobs up and down as he tries to stay awake while reading over his notes. Johnny wants nothing more than to let Jaehyun curl into him and let his head rest on his chest while he takes a well-deserved nap.

It’s well past 3AM and Johnny knows Jaehyun’s schedule well enough now that he has a morning lecture at 8AM, but Jaehyun shows no signs of stopping as he sips on his third cup of coffee. So, Johnny decides that he may need to do some intervening.

He takes it upon himself to flip the circuit breaker, feeling almost positive that Jaehyun is too tired to contact management about it or even attempt to fix it himself. The lights go out and the only light that illuminates the room is from Jaehyun’s laptop. Jaehyun looks up at the ceiling light in shock and then displeasure in the form of a small pout that makes Johnny’s heart clench with fondness.

Johnny can see him contemplating if he wants to continue studying by the light of his laptop screen, but that thought soon vanishes and Johnny watches in content as Jaehyun packs his notes and laptop back into his bag. Jaehyun falls back onto the bed with a loud thump, effectively making his fluffy hair fan out across his pillow, and making that hand around Johnny’s heart tighten just a little more.

Johnny turns off the switches for everything that Jaehyun had on before going to turn the power back on so that the lights don’t disturb Jaehyun. When he comes back, Jaehyun is asleep, soft sighs slipping past his lips rhythmically. Johnny is about to turn in for the night as well—not that he needs to sleep, but he has nothing better to do—retreating to the living room sofa that he calls his bed.

But, as he turns on his heel to leave, he notices Jaehyun isn’t under his covers. The fabric is bundled up at the bottom of the bed where he kicked them off of himself this morning in a rush when he realized that he was going to be late getting to campus.

Johnny usually tries to refrain from interfering in Jaehyun’s life as much as possible, but the air outside is chillier tonight than usual and the last thing Jaehyun needs is to fall ill when he’s already swamped with school. Jaehyun is asleep anyways, so it shouldn’t matter, right?

That’s the reasoning that Johnny settles on as he pulls the covers up Johnny’s body until they rest under his chin. Jaehyun doesn’t stir in the slightest, and that’s that. Johnny lets out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding, finally exiting the bedroom to go to bed as well.

What is he so worried about anyways? Even if Jaehyun did feel him move the covers, he would probably be too tired and end up thinking he was just dreaming.

*

“Do either of you know anything about lucid dreaming?” Jaehyun’s brow is furrowed the slightest in thought as he sets down his cup of black coffee

Johnny tuts in disbelief, but he doesn’t know if it’s from what Jaehyun just said, or if it’s in fear of the amount of caffeine that he’s ingested over the past 24 hours.

“Oh yeah! I made myself have a dream that I had a threesome with two hot classmates from my Chinese Language class one time!” Jaehyun’s friend, Ten, chimes excitedly across the table where he’s rolling silverware into napkins.

“I don’t think that’s something you should exclaim proudly while at work, Ten.” Jaehyun’s other friend, Taeyong, pinches the bridge of his nose, nursing an oncoming headache.

They’re all sitting in one of the booths at a homey little restaurant that Ten works at that’s not too far from campus. He’s lucky that he has a lot of charm and he’s good at sweet talking the customers, otherwise they’re all sure he would have been fired by now.

“Listen, you both should be begging for my teachings with the way I was able to control what happened in that dream. You wouldn’t _believe_ the things that happened.” Ten tuts, aiming a blunt butterknife towards Taeyong.

“And I’d like to keep it that way.” Taeyong puffs his chest and tilts his chin up at Ten in a challenge, shifting back into a normal position once Ten backs down. “Anyways,” Taeyong lets his narrowed eyes shift from Ten’s and Jaehyun watches the sharp orbs soften, “why do you ask?”

“Well it was kind of cold last night, right?” Jaehyun starts, waiting for his friends to nod their heads in silent agreement before continuing. “So, I was really tired last night and when I laid down to go to bed, I forgot to get under the covers. I’m pretty sure I was asleep, or at least mostly asleep, but I remember thinking that I was cold and that I should pull the covers up. But the thing is that as soon as I thought that, the covers lifted and laid across me without me even touching them.”

Ten and Taeyong are looking at him like he has two heads, waiting for more to the story—something thrilling or unexpected—but it never does.

“I mean yeah that kind of sounds like lucid dreaming.” Ten finally says as he returns his attention back to his wrapping, unamused with Jaehyun’s story.

“It’s just kind of weird though, because I know that I was pretty knocked out last night. Usually I toss and turn in my sleep, but when I woke up this morning I was in the exact same position I was in last night, except the covers were on top of me.” Jaehyun can’t help the way his brow furrows more and more in thought, trying to make sense of the situation.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you man, doesn’t sound too outrageous to me. What do you want me to say? That you have ghosts or something?” Ten continues about his wrapping, tone sharp like the folds he’s making in the napkins.

If Johnny had been sipping on his own drink along with them, he’s sure he would have choked on it. The loudmouth has profound answers most of the time, but this time he hit the nail on the head.

“Of course not, you know I don’t believe in that shit.” Jaehyun stirs, sitting back in his seat and crosses his arms with a bothersome sigh. “I just thought that maybe one of you would be able to give me a decent answer.”

“Sounds pretty normal to me, you probably just pulled the covers up and don’t remember doing it because you were so tired.” Ten supplies, huffing when one of his wraps doesn’t suit his standards and he has to restart it.

“Have...you had any other odd occurrences?” Taeyong finally speaks up, gaze curious and a little wary.

Jaehyun hesitates, not wanting to feed Taeyong’s peculiar interest in all things paranormal despite being terrified of said things. But, maybe it’s the raise of Ten’s intrigued eyebrow or the expecting glint in Taeyong’s eye that leads him to be honest.

“Well, the old lady that I live next to is always doting on my piano playing. Sometimes she even comments on it at times when I know I wasn’t playing because I wasn’t at the house, but she swears she heard the notes of a piano coming from my apartment. So I don’t know what that’s all about.” Jaehyun takes a swig of his coffee, practically jumping out of his skin when Taeyong shrieks.

“That’s so creepy!” He hugs himself, soothing the goosebumps that have emerged from nervous chills and the unsettling crawling of his skin. “You need to go buy some sage to burn right now!”

“Oh please, she’s elderly. I’m sure she’s just mistaken, mixing up her days or something.” Jaehyun waves off the petrified look on Taeyong’s face.

“Excuse you, Mrs Lee isn’t THAT old yet. She still has her wits about her.” Ten tuts, feeling offended for Jaehyun’s neighbor who he’s only met once. But when they had met she gave him a heaping pot of homemade stew and called him handsome, and the rest was history after that.

“I have to agree with Ten on this one, you don’t think it’s the least bit odd that your neighbor has been hearing noises coming from your apartment when you’re not there?” Taeyong quirks a judging brow.

“Well it’s not like I’m dead yet, so if there’s someone squatting in my apartment then apparently they’re not all _that_ bad. I’m just offended that I haven’t been making them pay rent.” Jaehyun takes another sip of his coffee, unsatisfyingly lukewarm now.

“That’s not the route I was going, but that might just be even worse if you’re chill with the idea of a complete stranger living in your apartment without your knowledge.” Taeyong shakes his head in disbelief, looking to Ten for some backup.

“Oh come on, Taeyong, nobody is living in my house. I would have noticed by now if there was.” Jaehyun exasperates, crawling out of the booth to grab one of the steeping pots of coffee and tops off his cup himself. Ten shoots a challenging glare his way, eyes darting warily to check if his boss saw that.

“I’m going to need you to get off your non paranormal believing high horse for a second and just entertain the idea that you _are_ being haunted. That doesn’t bother you?” Ten takes the coffee pot back from Jaehyun, sending an innocent smile towards his boss when she emerges from the back room and looks their way.

“Like I said before, I haven’t been hurt yet, so maybe it’s a nice ghost.” Jaehyun wraps his hands around his mug, letting the warmth seep from the ceramic and through his palms.

Johnny cocks his head in thought, because while he’s technically been nice to Jaehyun, he hasn’t been so nice to those who have wronged him. But, now isn’t the time to think about them, now it’s about Jaehyun.

“That could be well and true, but wouldn't it be best to try to get rid of it anyway?” Ten says as he slides back into his seat next to Taeyong.

Johnny scoffs at the idea of Jaehyun trying to get rid of him, feigning offence even though nobody in this conversation knows that he’s there and listening.

“What do you have against my ghost roommate?” Jaehyun mocks, playing along with Ten and Taeyong’s silly belief for the supernatural.

“That’s right! What did I ever do to you?” Johnny eggs on Jaehyun’s pseudo challenge.

“Don’t make fun of us, Jaehyun,” Taeyong sets his glass of nearly empty apple juice down with a clack against the table, “To be honest if you _do_ have a ghost that has latched onto you, I don’t know which one of you is more idiotic—you for not believing in it, or the ghost for sticking around with your annoying ass.”

Jaehyun and Johnny both press their hands against their hearts, pretending to be hurt. Johnny doesn’t really care about the small jab, but he does _love_ a good prank, and he’s never really messed with any of Jaehyun’s friends. So, why not now when he has good reason to? He’s only defending himself after all.

Johnny crawls into the booth behind where Ten and Taeyong are seated, situating himself directly behind Taeyong. He debates for a second on what to do, but then he’s leaning over and blows a steady stream of air across Taeyong’s ear.

Taeyong smacks his hand over his ear, his shoulders hiking up in defense as he looks around for the source of the air.

“What’s with you?” Ten turns to look at him, craning his neck to see what Taeyong is so fixated on.

“N-nothing, I think it’s just a little drafty in here.” Taeyong plays it off, shaking his head slightly to rid himself of the chills.

Johnny cracks a smug grin, while he doesn’t usually mess with the living he does enjoy a good scare here and there. So, he brushes a finger down the nape of Taeyong’s neck, watching in amusement at the way the human shudders before practically climbing over top of Ten to get out of the booth.

“Nope. Nuh uh. I gotta go guys.” He scrambles to his feet and doesn’t even look back once, walking straight out the door.

“He didn’t even pay for his drink!” Ten huffs, jaw hung agape in astonishment.

“Don’t think that you’re getting out of this unscathed.” Johnny turns his attention to Ten.

He could do the same thing or something similar to Taeyong, but where’s the fun in that? He stands up and looks around the restaurant, and that’s when it hits him. He walks over to the tray of silverware that Ten had just finished before starting the one that he is currently working on. He knocks it over, metal clinking against the floor as the utensils unravel from their napkin blankets.

“What the hell?!” Ten groans, springing to his feet from the loud clatter. “How does that even happen? They were on a completely flat surface.” Ten whines as he picks the tray up from off the ground and begins picking up each utensil one by one.

“That is weird,” Jaehyun mutters as he begins to scoot out of his seat to help Ten.

“Oh no you don’t! There’s no reasonable explanation for this, so that means that I must have somehow pissed off your ghost friend. Now get out, I don’t need it to be making any more work for me to do.” Ten tuts from the floor, sulking over his ruined hard work.

Johnny clicks his tongue, not completely satisfied with the outcome of his meddling with Ten, but he sees Jaehyun moving to leave out of the corner of his eye so he supposes that his work here is done and leaves with him.

*

Jaehyun knows that Ten probably didn’t mean anything by what he said at the restaurant, he’s used to Ten’s snappiness by now. But, aside from Taeyong running out all of sudden and Ten seeming more annoyed than alarmed, Jaehyun has to admit that the whole silverware fiasco was weird.

He tries not to think about as he shucks off his shoes and tosses his jackets onto the back of the couch. He makes a beeline for the kitchen and practically shoves his head into the refrigerator because the growl of his stomach is suddenly reminding him that all he’s had today is an unhealthy amount of coffee and it’s already a little after 5PM.

Thankfully he has enough decent ingredients to make a sandwich. He makes his meal and only halfway through eating it does he realize that he needs a drink too. He pulls down one of the glasses from a cabinet and pours himself some juice. But, the lip of the container catches the rim of the glass when he pulls back to stop pouring, and next thing he knows the glass is tumbling down towards the floor.

Jaehyun sees it happening, sees the glass heading for his feet, but there’s nothing that he can do except hope that it doesn’t shatter, or that if it does at least not cut his feet too bad.

He’s waiting for it to happen, waiting for the unnerving sound of glass breaking to fill the room, but too many beats of silence pass. That’s when Jaehyun’s eyes focus and he sees—at least he thinks that’s what his eyes are seeing—the glass hovering in mid air a few inches above the floor.

He blinks, unsure how to take the information in. He’s absolutely still, worried that if he moves then so will the glass. He’s playing a game of chicken with an inanimate object, waiting for it to make the first move because he certainly doesn’t know what to do. Because what the fuck his glass is literally defying gravity.

He finally wins their nonexistent game and watches as the glass falls the rest of the way, hitting the floor with a small thump but not nearly enough to break it. He thought that once the glass moved that he would be at peace again, but alas, he’s far from it.

Jaehyun stares at the glass, which rolls across the floor lightly and bumps against his foot. He swallows a pool of saliva that he didn’t know had accumulated in his mouth, and the room is so quiet that the gulp sounds nearly deafening. And of course the room is quiet, he’s the only one here after all, right?

He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, counts to ten before opening them again. He lifts his head, straightens his back, and then runs out of the kitchen at full speed, picking up his shoes before running out of the apartment and slamming the door shut behind him.

*

“Great. Just great!” Johnny groans, pacing back and forth in front of the door, waiting—hoping—for Jaehyun to come home.

He just _had_ to catch that stupid glass. He couldn’t help it, at the rate it was falling it surely would have shattered and cut Jaehyun, he had to protect him. Lot of good that did though, because now Jaehyun is scared of an invisible entity in his home and he’ll probably move out.

Sure, he could always follow Jaehyun wherever he decides to go, but that does little good when the human is probably scared to death of him now, or worse—hates him.

It’s only been about an hour and half, but the time has ticked by excruciatingly slow while Johnny has been pulling at his hair worrying over where Jaehyun went. He should have pulled himself together and followed Jaehyun when he ran out, but he was frozen in place by the realization that spread over Jaehyun’s face—stunned that his 17 year secret has finally been discovered.

Johnny is selfish, he knows this, that’s why he doesn’t want Jaehyun to fear him. He’d rather live the rest of his paranormal life being a mystery to Jaehyun than have him be afraid of him. In a perfect world, he’d want Jaehyun to return his feelings, but that’s a ridiculous request. How could anyone love a person that they couldn’t see, feel, or even hear?

Johnny was too young to realize it when he was younger and he agreed to this stupid deal, but it really is cruel to fall in love with someone and to not even have them know that you exist, and that if they do find out, then chances are likely that they’ll only ever fear you. That’s why Johnny always liked Jaehyun’s skepticism towards all things supernatural, at least if Johnny did ever decide to make himself known then maybe Jaehyun wouldn’t care about his presence much and wouldn’t be scared of him. But that hope ran out the door along with Jaehyun when he fled the apartment.

Johnny is so involved in his thoughts that he’s honestly surprised that he’s able to catch the jingle of keys on the other side of the door. He stops breathing, and there’s a hesitant pause before the door opens just a crack, but enough for Jaehyun to peak into the room.

His eyes flit around the room, checking for any abnormalities, and Johnny doesn’t quite know what he’s looking for because the invisible ghost he’s looking for is standing right in front of him, but clearly Jaehyun wouldn’t be able to know that and Johnny wonders why he’s even trying to look.

When Jaehyun for some reason deems the coast clear, he quietly pushes the door the rest of the way open and shuts it just as silently. He walks further into the house, and Johnny begins to believe that maybe Jaehyun just needed some time to himself to cool down and think rationally. Those thoughts start to fill his head and he feels a glimmer of hope bloom in his chest, but then he sees the bag that Jaehyun carried in that he had somehow missed. From it, Jaehyun pulls out a bundle of sage.

Johnny sighs in disbelief, because not only is Jaehyun trying to get rid of him, but he’s also been so ill informed on how to cleanse spaces. Nevertheless, Johnny can’t help but try to hide the grin spreading across his lips at the image of Jaehyun lighting the sage and walking around each part of the apartment with it.

Fondness aside, Johnny has a choice to make now. He can either pretend to go back to being nonexistent and let Jaehyun think that he has gotten rid of him, or he can come clean and bare his heart and soul to the human.

The first option sounds a lot more manageable, after all Johnny has been pretending to not exist for most of his life—well rather his ghostly life. But at the same time, he’s been given a chance. Now that Jaehyun is at least somewhat aware that there’s another being around him, now is as good a time as any to let the human know that a ghost has been haunting him for the past 17 years. Yeah, that should go swell.

There’s a part of himself—a large part—that’s scared shitless, but at least he’ll finally know that if Jaehyun reacts unfavorably to him then Johnny can leave to fulfill his curse through someone else. At least, that would be the smart decision, but there’s a tiny voice in the back of Johnny’s mind that tells him that he’d probably stick around with Jaehyun just to keep an eye on him and make sure that he’s okay.

It’s that reasoning that pulls Johnny to his conclusion. He pulls one of Jaehyun’s notebooks and a pen from his backpack that has been cast aside on the couch. Jaehyun is in the bedroom, still spreading meaningless smoke throughout all the rooms. Johnny approaches the room, terrified, because even though he looks normal to himself, all that Jaehyun will be able to see is a floating notebook and pen.

His heart is beating hard behind his rib cage as he sucks in a deep breath and crosses the threshold into the bedroom. But, Jaehyun isn’t in the room, and Johnny has a brief moment of panic because holy shit did Jaehyun turn invisible too? That thought is short lived though because Johnny soon hears some shuffling in the bathroom that’s connected to the bedroom.

Johnny decides to go ahead and take the time to write his greeting on the paper, figures that it will probably be best to be prepared rather than just holding a blank piece of paper for their first introduction.

Johnny muses over the options, he could be long winded, explain the circumstance that he’s in, but that’s when he remembers that the damn curse he’s under restricts him from speaking of it. In his panic, he scribbles something quickly onto the paper.

**Hi.**

Oh sure, yeah, great introduction. He looks at the two letters with a small pout on his lips, taking his bottom lip between his teeth as he debates what else he should write. He should be a bit more welcoming, a simple ‘hi’ is a little...off putting. He connects the pen to the notebook again and hardly has time to make any changes before the bathroom door opens suddenly and Jaehyun emerges.

Johnny is positive that if he wasn’t already dead that he would have had a heart attack on the spot. He’s forced to flip the notebook around early when Jaehyun’s wide eyes land on the floating object with horror.

**Hi :)**

Horribly embarrassing writing aside, Johnny thinks that this isn’t going too bad given the fact that Jaehyun isn’t screaming or running for his life. He’s just motionless, frozen.

Johnny turns the notepad to start writing again, but then he vaguely catches the glimpse of the bundle of smoldering sage being thrown right through his torso. He looks up to see that Jaehyun has backed himself up against the wall, and Johnny sighs before scribbling on the paper.

**That won’t work on me.**

His heart clenches uncomfortably tight in his chest when he sees Jaehyun’s eyes widen impossibly more, then his heart falls to the pit of his stomach when Jaehyun sprints out of the room faster than Johnny has ever seen him move.

Once Jaehyun is out of eyesight, Johnny closes his eyes and waits for the crippling sound of the front door opening then slamming shut to fill his ears. But, it never comes. Instead, he hears stomping come running back at him at an alarming speed. He opens his eyes and is met with the sight of Jaehyun peering around the frame of the bedroom door. His attention is then grabbed by something else being hurled at his face.

Droplets of water come rushing towards him, but they just pass right through him and instead leave little wet spots on the notebook he’s holding.

Holy water? Oh, sweetheart. Johnny shakes his head as he flips to a new page and begins to write again.

**That won’t work on me either.**

“Why the hell not?!” Jaehyun hisses, fingers clenched around the doorframe and knuckles white.

**Because I’m not a demon or an evil spirit.**

An ember of glee burns in Johnny when he sees a flash of curiosity on Jaehyun’s face, but then his guard is back up in the form raised shoulders and narrowed eyes.

“What are you then?”

Johnny moves to write, but he’s physically stopped by an unknown force. The chains of his curse keep his hand from writing, because that would be too much information. So, he settles on a different answer.

**I’m Johnny.**

Johnny lets Jaehyun take in the information, but when Jaehyun shows no signs of continuing their poor excuse for a conversation, he continues writing.

**It’s nice to finally talk to you :)**

Again with the fucking smiley face, Johnny cringes at himself. But, he doesn’t know how else to seem nonthreatening.

“Finally?” Jaehyun moves out from behind the wall just the slightest, “How long have you been...following—haunting?—me?” Jaehyun struggles to find the right words, and Johnny feels a little bad for being relieved that he’s clearly not the only one who doesn’t know how to handle this situation.

Johnny moves to write the years, but once again, the universe won’t let him. He clicks his tongue in irritation. This would be _so_ much easier if Johnny’s voice could be heard.

**A long time.**

“Are you the one who messed with my friends? At the restaurant?”

**...Yes...they insulted me and they were being rude to you.**

“So you decided to scare them? Great, a ghost with a sense of humor.” Jaehyun huffs, running a nervous hand through his hair and biting the inside of his cheek to contain the conflicting emotions that are ransacking his brain. “Well why are you here?”

Johnny already knows that he won’t be allowed to answer that, so he puts down another answer with an apologetic heart.

**I can’t answer that.**

“Why not?”

**I can’t answer that either.**

There’s several beats of silence, excruciating long that they put the years Johnny has spent in silence to shame.

“Are you going to hurt me?” Jaehyun finally asks, wary and judging behind the safety of his wall.

**No, I wouldn’t hurt you.** Johnny answers easily because it’s nothing but the truth, all he’s ever done is protect Jaehyun.

He saved him from the shelving unit that almost fell on him when he was six years old at daycare. He saved him from losing his wallet on the subway on his way to his freshman orientation for college. And he saved him from being cut by that stupid glass earlier in the kitchen. So, no, Johnny definitely isn’t going to hurt him.

Johnny’s response seems to ease Jaehyun’s tension, emerging from behind the frame to stand in the doorway.

“How long are you going to hang out in my house?”

Johnny pouts a little again, because the way Jaeyhun puts it sounds like he wants him to leave.

**I don’t know.** Johnny simply states, because he really doesn’t know. His ideal answer though would be to never leave. It hurts him to write it, but he does anyway. **Do you want me to leave?**

The question makes Jaehyun waver, and Johnny can practically see the cogs turning in his brain. He’s probably thinking something along the lines of that if he says he wants Johnny to leave that he’ll piss him off and hurt him, but the only one who would wind up hurt would be Johnny—suffering from a broken heart.

Jaehyun clenches his jaw, the tension visible in his body as he struggles with an answer.

“I don’t really care.” He eventually says, but Johnny can sense the conflict going on inside of him. “I’m just mostly annoyed that you’ve been squatting here without paying rent or anything.”

It’s a feeble attempt at a joke, and Johnny supposes that Jaehyun is trying to ease his own nerves with humor.

**I...can’t make money.**

Jaehyun _snorts_ at the words, making Johnny’s heart flutter with fondness. Also, that’s not fair, his heart shouldn’t be allowed to do things like that when he’s dead.

“What, you can’t rob a bank for me or anything?” Jaehyun teases, coming out of his shell more and more.

**...Well.** Johnny humors the idea.

“Wait no no no, I was kidding! Don’t do that!” Jaehyun startles at the vague text.

Johnny laughs loud and full from making Jaehyun flustered and he’s sure that if Jaehyun had been able to hear it that he would have sulked over Johnny laughing at him. He longs for the day when Jaehyun can hear his voice—if it ever comes.

Another long span of silence looms over them, and Johnny feels oddly exposed under Jaehyun’s judging gaze even though he knows that there’s no way that the human can see him. He’s about to write something—anything—to break the awkward air, but Jaehyun cuts him off by crossing his arms in thought.

“You know what? Maybe you’re not so bad. I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please drop a comment and let me know what you think, comments make me very happy!  
> You can also talk to me on twitter or curious cat  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/SoftServeTY)  
> [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/SoftServeTY)


	3. Like a Moth to a Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Can you stay here tonight? In bed...with me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the suuuuuuper late update, life has been hectic between work, school, and the absolute abomination that is 2020.
> 
> BUT after being stuck in an unmotivated rut for a long time, I'm finally proud of this chapter! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> TW // brief mention of blood and sexual harassment

Jaehyun adjusts to the idea of a ghost following him alarmingly quick, faster than Johnny anticipated given Jaehyun’s disbelief in all things paranormal. But, maybe it’s that scepticism that helps with the adjusting, having little to no knowledge on paranormal life he pretty much falls back into his usual routine aside for the occasional glare around rooms when he gets a feeling that Johnny is watching him. He mostly just seems annoyed by the whole endeavor and honestly Johnny can’t blame him.

Johnny didn’t quite know what he was expecting when he finally let Jaehyun know of his existence, maybe a cafe date, maybe they could see a movie, a walk in the park—who knows, just _something_. But instead, Johnny has reverted back to his old ways of sitting in the shadows and letting Jaehyun’s life resume as normal except for the occasional forced study breaks when Jaehyun has gone without eating too long for Johnny’s liking, or serving as a human alarm clock when Jaehyun hits snooze too many times and is well on the verge of being late.

He hasn’t invited anyone back to the apartment in quite a while, and Johnny can’t tell if it’s because Jaehyun was too busy with midterms or if it’s because he has connected some dots and now realizes that Johnny possibly has and very well could sit in on some bedroom antics. Either way, Johnny isn’t complaining.

But, with midterms finally over, the first thing that comes out of Jaehyun’s mouth when he gets back home from class feels like a slap to Johnny’s face.

“I’m going out clubbing tonight with Ten and Taeyong and you can’t come with me.” Jaehyun states as he makes a beeline for his bedroom.

It takes a second for Johnny to process the sudden order being thrown at him—having been watching BuzzFeed Unsolved in the living room, he wasn’t prepared for this at all. Though once he gets his bearings he picks up the notebook that he stole from Jaehyun and has now claimed as his and follows Jaehyun into his room.

**Why?**

“Because I just want to let loose and have fun for the night. If you come it will feel like my mom is there like a disappointed chaperone.” Jaehyun sighs as he tosses his bag onto his bed and begins rummaging through his closet for something to wear.

To be fair, Johnny _would_ feel like a disappointed chaperone, but the accusation doesn’t hurt his feelings any less.

**I can have fun.** Johnny scribbles defensively, but then turns the notebook back around to add on to his argument when Jaehyun quirks a challenging brow at him. **I can party with other people.**

Jaehyun huffs an amused chuckle. “And just how are you going to do that without having Ghostbusters called on your ass?”

**You’d be surprised at the things intoxicated people allow themselves to believe. In a dimly lit room with flashing lights and blaring music, I’m just as human as everyone else in that room.**

“I mean...I guess. But, I’d still rather you not come.” Jaehyun replies honestly before returning his attention to his wardrobe.

A pout grounds itself and calls Johnny’s face home for too long until he finally remembers that Jaehyun can’t see his expression.

“What? Are you going to rate my outfits too?” Jaehyun jokes when he notices the notebook still floating in the middle of his room, a telltale sign that Johnny is still there.

Without bothering with an answer, Johnny turns on his heel and exits the bedroom. Jaehyun is an adult, he knows that, so he needs to treat him like one. He likes to trust that he can make wise decisions for himself, but he can’t help but to worry sometimes given Jaehyun’s history with bad luck.

Nevertheless, he chokes down those worries and silently broods in the living room, not at all paying attention to what’s playing on the TV anymore.

It’s well past ten o’clock when Jaehyun finally emerges from his bedroom, and Johnny quickly loses the internal battle that he is facing with himself to not look at Jaehyun’s outfit. His pants aren’t too bad, black skinny jeans that are cupping his ass a little too nicely for Johnny’s liking. His shirt however is another story, a white mesh top that’s completely see through, offering up Jaehyun’s toned pecs and abs on a silver platter.

“Don’t follow me.” Jaehyun has the nerve to call over his shoulder before he walks out the front door.

That’s an order that he won’t be following, and without missing a beat Johnny is off the couch in a second.

*

True to his word, Jaehyun meets up with Ten and Taeyong outside of a club, one that Johnny has followed him to before. There’s a line to get in that is moving at a less than optimal speed, especially when it starts to drizzle lightly. Ten clicks his tongue in annoyance, Taeyong tries to protect his freshly dyed hair from getting wet, and Jaehyun’s bottom lip juts out slightly as he pouts about the cold rain hitting his bare skin through the mesh shirt.

Johnny is annoyed with him, but at the same time he wants to keep him dry, wants to hold him close to warm him up, but he can’t very well do that in front of so many people and particularly when he’s not supposed to be here in the first place. To both Johnny’s relief and displeasure though, the man standing behind the group holds up an umbrella large enough to cover all of them if they squeeze in close.

And that’s precisely what they do. The guy is definitely handsome from where Johnny is standing just a few feet across from them on the sidewalk, he’ll give him that. He’s smooth too, taking Jaehyun’s shivering into account and _asking_ him if he can help warm him up. Johnny can’t quite tell what exactly they’re all talking about because he’s too busy shooting daggers at the guy’s arm that’s draped over Jaehyun’s shoulder. But, he does notice Taeyong and Ten’s encouraging glances to Jaehyun, and Jaehyun’s flattered and confident demeanor.

There’s an ember of resentment that is sitting nice and cozy in Johnny’s mind as he watches Jaehyun laugh at the handsome man’s jokes and swoon over his charms. But, it’s not a raging fire, because Johnny is glad that at least someone offered to keep Jaehyun warm, and Ten and Taeyong are too scantily clad to be much help either. He’s just jealous that he can’t be the one to help him.

Despite his sulking, the time it takes for the line to move up isn’t long and before Johnny knows it they’re walking into the club. The music booms louder with each step that they take down the stairs and descend into the darkness of the dimly lit corridor. Once they reach the bottom of the stairwell, Ten moves a blackout curtain aside and they’re met with an array of blue, purple, green, and red strobing lights.

The room is filled to the brim with people, though that’s probably to be expected for a Friday night. But, it doesn’t help the nerves that bloom in Johnny’s chest at the thought of keeping an eye on Jaehyun amongst all of the people.

Jaehyun and the other man walk to the bar while Ten and Taeyong make their way to the center of the dance floor, shooting cheeky winks to Jaehyun before parting. Johnny watches the man like a hawk to make sure that he doesn’t slip anything into Jaehyun’s drink while the two make small talk as Jaehyun waits for the alcohol to hit. Once Jaehyun seems to be feeling a little buzzed, he flirtatiously takes the man by the hand and leads him to dance.

Johnny does in fact feel very much like a disappointed chaperone as Jaehyun had described in the apartment as he watches Jaehyun grind his ass against the stranger’s front. Johnny isn’t standing too far from them, feeling oddly like he needs to give Jaehyun space despite the fact that Jaehyun isn’t aware of his presence. Even so, he’s close enough to be in the middle of a group of dancers, and he’s still not sure if he’ll ever get used to people being able to just walk right through him.

He could let his presence be known, focus his energy enough for people to be able to touch his body and maybe dance behind some severely intoxicated person, but aside from the action being physically and mentally draining, he doesn’t really want to take his eyes off of Jaehyun. Not when he looks so ethereal in the flashing neon lights and is moving with the grace and charisma of a trained dancer.

Songs come and go, and the bite that Johnny has on the inside of his cheek to suppress his pettiness has increased in force the more daring the stranger that Jaehyun is dancing with becomes. His hands are wrapped around Jaehyun’s waist, deft fingers brazenly crept their way under the mesh of his shirt. His lips explore the expanse of the back of Jaehyun’s neck to behind his ear, and Johnny tries to keep his composure as Jaehyun giggles from the action.

_As long as he’s happy,_ Johnny thinks to himself, _that’s enough for me. That’s the way it has to be._

Jaehyun’s movements have become quite loose, he’s on his fourth glass of honestly Johnny isn’t quite sure what, but it seems to be doing its job rather effectively in getting Jaehyun drunk. Though he commends Jaehyun for being rather careful with his drinks, not having spilled any of them despite dancing and being shitfaced.

Out of the corner of his eye, Johnny catches movement that doesn’t quite look like dancing. Towards the outskirts of the room where it’s dimmer, there are four men who seem to be in an argument. Johnny is about to ignore it and return his attention to Jaehyun, but then the glint of one of the mens studded choker holds Johnny’s attention. He knows who that belongs to, and he recognizes the small, fiery, dark haired man that it belongs to. It’s Ten.

He and Taeyong seem to be being held against their will against the wall by two other men. Johnny looks back at Jaehyun to see him still dancing with the guy that he has been all night, then clicks his tongue in annoyance before heading towards Taeyong and Ten.

They’re not in immediate danger, probably mildly annoyed with catching unwanted attention and being detained by some two assholes. They’re not putting up a big fight, probably not wanting to cause a scene, but Johnny can tell by the frantic shifting in Taeyong’s eyes specifically that he’s trying to find a way out. Upon closer inspection, Johnny can see that one of the men has his fingers hooked in the large front ring of Ten’s choker.

“Is now a bad time to tell you that I’m not into choking?” Ten quips.

The attempt to de-escalate the situation and play it off with jokes though does little to fix their dilemma, and Ten finds himself being forcefully pulled into a sloppy kiss that he doesn’t want.

“Get the fuck off!” Ten snaps, his temper having reasonably doubled from the unwanted action.

Ten tries to push the guy off but to no avail given his grip on his choker and his admittedly larger frame. So, he manages to get the man's fingers in his mouth and bites. Hard. At least that’s only what Johnny can assume given that he can hear the guy scream over the music that’s reverberating throughout the room.

“You fucking bitch!” The man curses as he raises his other hand towards Ten.

But, before he can hit him, Johnny grabs him by the back of his hair and pushes his head into the wall behind Ten. With a loud thud, the man drops to the ground and squirms along the floor, holding his hands over his bloodied nose and mouth.

The man who had been harassing Taeyong gazes down at his friend in confusion and fear of what just happened, disoriented as he looks around to see who smashed his buddy’s face against the wall.

Johnny watches the panic set in across his expression when he can’t find the culprit. The whining from the guy writhing on the ground in pain has drawn attention from some nearby bystanders, so the man bothering Taeyong ultimately decides to gather his friend and leave the scene before people or security begin to ask what happened.

As the two men stagger away, Ten and Taeyong glance at each other in astonishment, speechless as they try to wrap their brains around what just happened.

Johnny on the other hand realizes that he has spent too long away from Jaehyun and anxiety fills his body when he can’t find him among the crowd of people.

He goes back to where the couple were dancing, but doesn’t see them. He goes to the bar, but they aren’t there. He checks the bathroom, but he still can’t find them.

In a frantic, last second decision, he runs outside. There he sees Jaehyun and the man he’s been with all night beginning to cross the crosswalk. It’s still raining, but the man has his umbrella out and his arm tight around Jaehyun’s waist to keep him close and under the dry shelter of the umbrella—and perhaps maybe to keep his balance steady considering that Johnny can see Jaehyun’s drunk stagger even from nearly opposite ends of the crosswalk.

Not tight enough however, because once they’re almost to the other side, Jaehyun’s phone slips out of his hand and he turns back to grab it, not paying attention to the traffic light that has turned green or the car speeding his way.

It happens so fast after that. The stranger Jaehyun was with turns to see why Jaehyun stepped back out into the rain and street, and he reaches his hand out to grab him, but isn’t fast enough.

Johnny, however, is fast.

Maybe it’s the adrenaline, maybe it’s another paranormal perk that he just discovered. But either way, he’s able to push Jaehyun back onto the street before the car can strike him.

Jaehyun staggers back onto the sidewalk and loses his balance, falling into a puddle and thoroughly soaking his jeans. With a pout on his lips, he huffs and stares as if he’s looking directly into Johnny’s eyes.

“I told you not to come!” He whines as he struggles to rise to his feet.

Panting from his sprint across the street, Jaehyun sucks what little air Johnny has out of his lungs as he addresses Johnny’s presence in public. Johnny glances at the man with Jaehyun, looking reasonably confused as Jaehyun has a standoff with nothing in front of him.

“Why do you insist on following me wherever I go? Why can’t you leave me alone for once? If I wanna get railed then that’s my business, stop cock blocking me.” Jaehyun slurs the overly honest complaint.

Jaehyun’s outburst is beginning to turn some heads and before Johnny can make a rational decision, he’s tugging on Jaehyun’s wrist and trying to get them both out of public. Jaehyun’s almost one night stand as well as a few passersby are motionless as they watch the scene play out, probably thinking that Jaehyun is either crazy or a really good mime that speaks.

Nevertheless, Johnny clicks his tongue and pulls Jaehyun aside all while he’s moaning and groaning until they finally reach an empty street.

“Let me go!” Jaehyun huffs, and Johnny finally complies once he deduces that the coast is clear.

Jaehyun looks rather frazzled and Johnny searches around quickly for something to write on, but there’s nothing. That is until he notices Jaehyun’s phone still clenched tightly in his hand from his narrow escape from possible death.

Johnny takes the device from Jaehyun’s hand with a little protest from the other. He thanks whatever deities there are that Jaehyun doesn’t have a passcode to unlock his phone and begins typing.

**Sorry, for dragging you away. I panicked when we started drawing attention.**

“You’re not supposed to be here in the first place. Why did you follow me when I told you not to?”

Johnny avoids directly answering Jaehyun’s question. **It’s a good thing that I did, you almost got hit by a car.**

“Don’t be dramatic,” Jaehyun sighs as he attempts to roll his eyes, proving to be a more difficult feat with his impaired motor skills, “I had everything under control.”

Johnny bites back the retort on the tip of his tongue—or rather at the tips of his fingers—and figures that de-esculating their situation would be better than adding fuel to the fire.

“Now I can’t even go back to Eunwoo because he probably thinks I’m crazy.” Jaehyun pouts again, resembling a moping puppy after receiving an unwanted bath.

Ah so that was the guy’s name, Johnny never caught it because he was too busy sulking during his and Jaehyun’s introduction.

Honestly, he didn’t seem like a bad guy. He probably would have let Jaehyun spend the night with him, but then Jaehyun had to go and get nearly run over.

**I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just flustered after you almost got hurt.**

Jaehyun doesn’t seem to know how or what to respond with, opening and closing his mouth a few times until eventually sighing and letting it go.

Jaehyun begins to shiver from the cold rain hitting his skin, water dripping from his fringe and his pants are still sopping wet from when he fell earlier. He looks positively pitiful, and Johnny wants nothing more than to drape him in a dry blanket and warm his chilled skin until Jaehyun is content.

The screen of Jaehyun’s phone is littered with rain droplets as Johnny types. **Let’s go home.**

The way back isn’t too far, but it takes longer than it should given Jaehyun’s clumsy state where he finds himself misjudging depth and stubbing the front of his shoes against uneven ground and loose bricks of the sidewalks.

Johnny has to physically steady him a few times. Noticing the way he startles at the sudden contact hurts a little, but it can’t be helped.

“It’s weird,” Jaehyun starts, taking several long seconds to pass between them before he continues—maybe to gather his thoughts or maybe waiting to pass other people on the street so that they don’t see him seemingly talking to himself, “I can like _feel_ you when you touch me, but there’s no warmth of someone who’s alive, and no chill of someone who’s dead. There’s just...nothing but pressure if that makes sense.”

Johnny muses over the new knowledge, and his heart sinks a little at the information that he can never offer Jaehyun any warmth in his current state.

He’s not alive, but simply existing.

After a few wrong entries of trying to type the code to get into Jaehyun’s apartment building, Jaehyun is lucky that Johnny knows it by heart by now or else any more wrong entries and an alarm would be sent to the police. Jaehyun huffs a laugh when he sees the buttons of the security keypad seem to type by themselves.

“You know, I’ve had my fair share of close calls throughout my life. Do you have anything to do with those?” Jaehyun asks as he steps into the building, finally safe from the rain.

Johnny slips Jaehyun’s phone from his hand, somewhat expecting another poor attempt at putting up a fight, but Jaehyun lets him take it.

**You’re quite the handful.**

“There you go dodging questions again.” Jaehyun sighs, making a beeline for the building elevator and not even glancing at the stairs. That’s probably wise.

**What do you mean? That** **_is_ ** **an answer.**

“Yes but you’re always so wishy-washy with your responses. So unsure. You never give me a definite answer.” Jaehyun lets his head fall back to rest against the metal wall of the elevator once they’re inside and moving.

**Where’s the fun in that? I like leaving my words up for interpretation.**

Jaehyun cracks a grin and a small laugh at that before closing his eyes to give them a small amount of rest for the remaining ride in the elevator. The fun, buzz part of his drunken state is beginning to die down and he’s starting to crash, fatigue hanging heavy on his eyelids.

They manage to finally make it to the apartment and Johnny lets out a sigh of relief upon being greeted with the familiar sights and smells.

Jaehyun ungracefully takes off his wet shoes and socks at the door, stumbling over several times. He probably would have completely fallen if Johnny hadn’t helped to hold him up.

Once that small trial is over with, Johnny takes it upon himself to walk ahead and take out fresh clothes from Jaehyun’s closet for him to change into and places them onto the bed.

“Now that’s something I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to.” Jaehyun mumbles as he enters his bedroom. “Seeing objects just floating around in midair.”

Johnny doesn’t exactly know how to respond to that. Something like ‘get used to it, because I plan on being here for a while’ is a bit aggressive. So, he stays silent and leaves Jaehyun’s phone on his bed.

Once Jaehyun must think that Johnny is gone, he begins trying to undress himself. Emphasis on ‘trying’ because his wet clothes and less than ideal motor skills prove to be making things difficult.

So, Johnny lifts the phone from the bed and types, **D** **o you need help?**

“Jesus christ!” Jaehyun jumps, “Everytime I think you’re gone, you’re not. I guess that’s to be expected when you have a ghost that’s a peeping Tom.” Jaehyun jabs, making Johnny roll his eyes at the insult even though it’s somewhat true.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Jaehyun reluctantly lifts his arms above his head, a signal that Johnny takes as his go ahead. He lifts the uncomfortably wet shirt over Jaehyun’s head and tosses it onto the floor. The shirt was the easy part, and honestly Johnny didn’t think this far ahead. When he looks down to the skinny jeans that are practically suction cupped to Jaehyun’s legs with the added factor of them being drenched, he swallows the lump in his throat as he sinks to his knees.

Despite being unable to see Johnny at all, it feels as if Jaehyun is trying to avoid any form of eye contact as Johnny glances back up at him, which Johnny is honestly kind of thankful for because he’d rather not be attracted to Jaehyun anymore than he already is. He makes quick work of unclasping the button of his jeans and helping Jaehyun wriggle out of them, trying to make it as less awkward as possible.

He lets out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding once they’re finally off, that is, until he realizes that Jaehyun’s underwear are also soaked. In a moment of embarrassed panicking—as if he hasn’t seen Jaehyun naked before—he collects the wet clothes and rises to his feet.

**You can take care of the rest. Your new clothes are on the bed.** Johnny types before walking off to the bathroom to hang the wet garments up to dry.

“Yes, dear.” Jaehyun mocks, unknowing of the effect that the term of endearment has on the other.

Johnny can feel the blood pooling to his face, from both having to undress Jaehyun and having been addressed by Jaehyun in such a way. It was clearly a joke, and Johnny has to repeat that to himself over and over again to get a grip on reality.

Once he’s calmed himself down, he emerges from the bathroom with a towel, thankful that Jaehyun is fully dressed. He looks cute in his oversized shirt and baggy pajama pants, cheeks red as warmth begins creeping back into them and the chill from the outside lingering on his skin withers away. The younger for some reason is sitting on the bed like he was waiting for Johnny to come back out, and Johnny tries not to think too much about it as he crosses the distance between them.

He tosses the towel onto Jaehyun’s lap. **The air conditioner is on. Dry your hair so that you don’t catch a cold.**

“Can you do it for me?” Jaehyun speaks up before Johnny can leave.

While all of Johnny’s reasoning is telling him no, he can’t help but to fall prey to Jaehyun’s soft, expecting eyes. So, he sits down in front of Jaehyun, picks the towel back up, and starts ruffling Jaehyun’s hair with it.

Jaehyun closes his eyes, seemingly enjoying the pampering. He looks oddly content and comfortable despite there being a paranormal being directly in front of him, but that makes Johnny’s heart grow all the more fonder for him.

“So are you like my guardian angel or something?” Jaehyun speaks up suddenly, taking Johnny by surprise.

**How am I supposed to dry your hair and type at the same time?**

“Sounds like you need to develop better multitasking skills.” Jaehyun teases, making Johnny huff a laugh that he wishes Jaehyun could hear. “Anyways, I feel like you try to take care of me a lot, and maybe that’s why it seems like you’re always with me even when I tell you not to. Isn’t that kind of like what a guardian angel would do?”

**I mean kind of...maybe?**

In all honesty, Johnny doesn’t know much about guardian angels. In a sense, he does qualify for some of the positions, but he knows that his sole purpose isn’t to protect or guide Jaehyun. It’s just something he does out of love.

“There you go being all vague again.” Jaehyun whines. “Why can’t you give me any solid answers?”

Johnny knows why, because his curse won’t allow him to say exactly what he is. So, instead he types, **Communicating is kind of hard for me.**

Jaehyun looks like he wants to say something, but instead bites the inside of his cheek and holds whatever it was inside.

Once Jaehyun is quiet for a while, Johnny continues drying his hair. He’s always known that Jaehyun is gorgeous, and this moment is no exception with his damp hair and the soft glow of his red cheeks.

“Earlier, you said that you were flustered after I almost got hurt...why?” Jaehyun’s voice is smaller now, like he’s unsure if he should be asking this or not. “If you’re not a guardian angel, then why do you care if I get hurt?”

Johnny pauses and lets the towel fall around Jaehyun’s shoulders, overwhelmed by the sincere curiosity in Jaehyun’s expression. His gaze is casted downwards into his lap, and Johnny knows from 17 years of living with Jaehyun that it’s not like him to be so bashful.

Johnny urges Jaehyun to lift his head by curling his fingers under his chin to try to get a read on what he’s thinking. Once again, Johnny knows that Jaehyun can’t see him, but Jaehyun has an eerie way of accurately guessing where Johnny’s eyes are.

His skin is warm against his touch, his hair damp but soft between his fingers, and Johnny finds himself being drawn in before he has time to think.

Everything dissolves around them when his lips finally touch Jaehyun’s. His curse doesn’t matter anymore, not when his lips are pressed against Jaehyun’s like they belong there. It’s so much more fulfilling than the stolen kisses while Jaehyun is sound asleep, especially when Jaehyun rolls his lips back against Johnny’s.

Johnny is a little on edge, afraid to move and waiting for Jaehyun to pull back. But, Jaehyun shows no signs of stopping, one of his hands coming up to cup Johnny’s jaw. Johnny feels like a complete amateur—rightfully so considering he has zero kissing experience—so he lets Jaehyun take the lead.

And lead he does, making Johnny’s mind fog over with a haze of want when Jaehyun’s thumb runs along his jaw. A ripple of pleasure trickles from Johnny’s head, down his spine, and out through his toes. Johnny feels more alive than he ever has before.

He doesn’t want to stop, but he needs to put an end to the unwelcomed desire brewing in his core. He reluctantly draws back, but immediately misses the feeling of Jaehyun’s plush lips and presses one more chaste kiss against them.

Jaehyun opens his eyes and Johnny watches as he seems to pull himself back to reality as well.

“O-oh...that’s nice.” Jaehyun fumbles over his words, clearly shaken from what just happened as he tries to come to terms with it.

Johnny scoffs from the choice of wording, but he can’t help but to agree. Because yeah, that was nice.

Jaehyun’s thumb wanders from his jaw to Johnny’s lips. He tugs the bottom one down gently and Johnny momentarily wonders if he’s going to kiss him back.

“Can you stay here tonight?” Jaehyun asks instead of kissing him. “In bed...with me?”

Johnny untangles his hand from Jaehyun’s hair and reaches for the phone that had been casted aside on the sheets. His heart yearns a little when Jaehyun peels his gaze away from his eyes to watch him type, wanting to stay lost in Jaehyun’s eyes forever if he could.

**If you want me to.**

Without missing a beat, Jaehyun nods his head in affirmation. Johnny nods back despite Jaehyun not being able to see it, but maybe he can feel it considering Jaehyun’s hand is still on his face.

Johnny scoots back and pulls the covers back, waiting for Jaehyun to crawl under them. Once he does, he lifts himself from the bed to take the towel back to the bathroom before finding his own place under Jaehyun’s covers.

It’s an odd feeling, like he shouldn’t be here, and Johnny almost can’t believe that he’s sharing the same bed as Jaehyun until Jaehyun takes it upon himself to nuzzle his head into the crook of Johnny’s neck.

Johnny tries not to think about it too much—Jaehyun is probably just craving the intimate touch of another person after not having it for several weeks, Johnny also knows that he’s exceedingly clingy when he’s drunk. That’s all this is.

Having spent a good portion of the night focusing his energy to touch objects and people, fatigue envelops Johnny’s body like a weighted blanket. But, he holds on long enough until Jaehyun falls asleep, not wanting the younger to think that he disappeared.

As he soaks in the warmth of Jaehyun’s body, Johnny comes to a realization. Jaehyun is simultaneously the most cruel person to Johnny in both the best and worst ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe that these two are making progress? (Johnny can't believe it either, someone pinch him)  
> Feel free to leave a comment, I love chatting with you all 💞
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/SoftServeTY)   
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